DVD reviews

Share via e-mail

TRISHNA
“Tess of the d’Urbervilles” transposed to modern-day India, courtesy of filmmaker Michael Winterbottom (“The Trip”). This sumptuously shot melodrama of a country girl’s seduction and betrayal suffers from a passive heroine played by a passive leading lady, the dazzling but dramatically inert Freida Pinto. (MPI Home Video, $24.98)

WHAT HAPPENED TO KEROUAC?
The 1986 documentary about the author of “On the Road” has been seriously beefed up. This two-disc edition includes more than two hours of rare and previously unseen footage of and about the novelist and his legacy. (Shout! Factory, $19.93)

GUYS AND DOLLS Frank Loesser’s 1950 musical boasts one of the all-time great Broadway scores (“Luck Be a Lady,” “If I Were a Bell,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”). Alas, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1955 film version neither rings the bell nor rocks the boat. What makes it must-see viewing, and listening, is Marlon Brando doing a quite creditable job as Sky Masterson. Extras: featurettes, theatrical trailer. (Warner, Blu-ray, $34.99)

RASHOMON Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece introduced the world to Japanese cinema — and gave it a word to describe any narrative depending on multiple viewpoints. Its Blu-ray debut includes a restored soundtrack, a 68-minute documentary featuring cast and crew, newly translated subtitles, and an audio interview with actor Takashi Shimura. (Criterion, $39.95)

FRITZ LANG: THE EARLY WORKS Even before such films as “Metropolis” and “M” made his reputation, Fritz Lang was already the master of screen geometry in an implacable universe. “Harakiri” (1919) is a reworking of “Madama Butterfly.” “The Wandering Shadow” (1920) is Lang’s first collaboration with future wife and frequent scenarist Thea von Harbou. “Four Around the Woman” (1921), with its story of a protagonist caught in a web of criminality, anticipates much of Lang’s later filmography. Also from Kino this week, a newly restored version of Lang’s “Die Nibelungen.” ($39.95; “Nibelungen,” $34.95; Blu-ray, $39.95)

THE DAY HE ARRIVESA film director (Yu Jun-sang) who now teaches at a provincial university spends three days in Seoul visiting a friend. Hong Sang-soo wrote and directed this story of a man at loose ends. He meets an old flame. He drinks with friends. He briefly takes up with another woman. Nothing really eventful happens, except for the most eventful thing of all, life. (Cinema Guild, $29.95)